mthomas08

Ah, understandable about the not Creative. Guess my "Quest" for the perfect server for me continues

Too far for us, but if I was you I would read through a lot of threads in this forum about it. I would also try and do some Off the record conversations with as many Staff as you can. It's not as smooth sailing as some may have led you to believe. We've had our major ups and major downs, we are again in the situation where we are debating "If it's really worth it". And we've even tried different Schemes. More than welcome to PM me, I'm always happy to discuss the Pros/Cons.

Yeah I have to completely agree. I still notice Windows PCs in financial, holiday, NHS, supermarkets and pretty much nearly every single office I've stepped in to. Even the younger generation still prefer a PC/Laptop with Windows and Office for productivity (my other halfs youngest sister has not long started Uni) and she's pretty much this "Younger" generation of living on a mobile phone all day. She's studying Biology or something along that line, she went out and got a Lenovo All in one PC with Windows 8.1 (upgraded to W10). I didn't even need to advise on what type of equipment, they know very little about IT but one thing she knew is keyboard/mouse, Microsoft Office and "Not a Tablet". Her School was also based on Open Source but she knew what she wanted (plus awarded as one of the best Schools in our region). So it wasn't exactly like she had been a Microsoft or even older generation youth. No doubt people are getting Tablets instead of having a PC at home but some people will still get them. My sister's youngest kid got an iPad for Christmas, yet she still went out and got a brand new Windows 10 Laptop to do their business/finances on with Microsoft Office. She's also very happy to sit on the Tablets and do some skiing on the internet but when it comes to productivity MS/Windows still seems the Winner. As for the future of M$, I think Windows 10 is almost spot on what we want. It can go on a Tablet and a PC/Laptop, while still giving us that productivity value. Although I'm no fan of Edge... I can see M$ making major cutbacks, when it finally scraps W7/W8.1 and all Internet Explorer versions plus older versions of Office. With W10/Office though I see it continuing for a very long time.

You never played with me, projects were always finished for me, I hated things not finished and had to be a must have. In fact as time went by and I came up with new/different ideas I would go back to the already finished projects and improved upon them. Such a shame though that our old map became corrupted because it was truly immense, some of what I have seen on Community Servers haven't really compared (although I have seen a few things I was like WOW, I want to try that). @localzuk Tell me to sod off, but what's the possibility of having a second map on Creative? Although I do at times enjoy survival (gathering for hours on end) at times it's great just to build hours on end.

Sounds fun but not my long term preference for Minecraft. I'm more a non stop builder, once I finished a project I start another and it continues. Then I link them together, underground cart systems, passage ways.. ugh.. the more I think about it all the more I seriously missed it... Hell I'm the type of person that would build a world size of the Ocarina of Time (loved that game) just for fun... and yes I did have a water dungeon which was large too.. Memories! The main reason why I haven't got back in to it is finding a server where I can build a TON or spending hours just trying to find a spot just to die and unable to find that spot again...

@localzuk Oooo absolutely thank you I will wait till the reset though, assume this is Creative? I can be.. very carried away once I start...... after all it's like virtual drugs.

And sadly, this will turn out to be your fault. When things maybe go slow they will turn their attention to you....

To be honest, I don't think anyone is right. We do a Scheme and any device not purchased through it is not our responsibility and we make that very clear to everyone. The idea is when you sign up to it, you get IT Support, Insurance, Warranty and Case. For Parents who provide their own device we use the Liability as a no go, what if my guys break it or accidently erase data etc. That IT Support is much broader and open than what most people realize: • Malware issues • Imaging (including improvements, updates in future) • Students forgetting local passwords • Software problems • Wireless issues • Documentation • Office 365 Live + Setting up • All Pre-configured devices to the individual • General day to day assistance We also do a lot of chasing in regards to any Warranty, Insurance or general company issues for the Scheme. This is I have to say a mountain of work when you add it all up, even just for a single year of 210+ Students who signed up. I make it very clear to those above that this does have an impact of day to day Support, after all we still have 600 PCs, 100 projectors, 100 IWBs, Wireless/Networking/Servers, Biometric MFD Printers, up to a hundred packages of software – I could go on. Things are much better now than the nightmare of day 1, we can get an average of 5-10 Students in the door with their devices instead of 40+ a day because of the Pre-Planning we have done. It’s important to ask “How far will you AND the School be expected to go”. • Are you going to be expected to Repair? • Repairs = Cost to the School? • Extended Warranty? • Insurance? If so who will chase? Are you allowed to do it on behalf of the Student? School owned? What if it’s VOID (has happened) • Solid case – I recommend buying a high protective one costing £35+ • Will you image? – I recommend sticking W7 Professional or 8.1 (w/e similar to your system) • Will you be expected to install Future Software? What if a Staff member asks “I want this” which is Network Software or Windows Specific (We have a few that wont work on 8/10 – Yes I know W7 wont last forever. • Are you going to be expected to give Day to Day Training? I can’t say how many times I’ve had to send large groups of Students away just to show them how to “Logon to email” due to the lack of ICT Lessons – which are now resolved after me going a little mad. • What if it gets stolen, lost or the Student gets pushed by another Student and it breaks or that Student throws the case and it smashes it – is it still covered by the School/Insurance? • Loans/Spares – The more the Students rely on them (And their Teachers) what happens when their one is not working? • Are you/School LIABLE – this is key, what if your team accidently did something – Do Students save to a Network Drive (accidents can happen even from IT Support) Once you start going down the route of “Providing” Students equipment that they take home etc, You ARE opening a door to the big wide world of “REALITY”. The above is the type of thing I would discuss with that SLT member, on one side if we are to Support it then that means its NOT just IT Support that’s SCHOOL Support which opens the doors to costs. Still personally it doesn’t bother me if we do support these BUT I will make sure those above are aware of everything not just “Shove it on to IT Support and they can deal with it”. I can’t stress the amount of times I’ve made comments about this “Attitude”. I love my job and I am willing to Support any IT but if it becomes too much, the School will either have to cut back or employ more Staff. What happens when a School is expected to take on another 200 Students, it expands classrooms, employs additional Teachers or their Teacher Union protest down the streets screaming at the Government for not giving two hoots about Teachers and their ever growing Students to deal with. Excuse the large post To be honest, I don't think anyone is right. We do a Scheme and any device not purchased through it is not our responsibility and we make that very clear to everyone.

Didn't realise this MC Server was still going. Must admit, I've been really thinking about coming back to good old MC. A mate of mine had a server which we and a few others spent a lot of time on it. I got a bit obsessed to the point I build around 8 large cities, a few dungeons (1 that took about an hour to complete on Survival) few outposts, paths to them all (all lit up) and of course the surrounding areas on all of that was tidied up. Okay.. I miss the game.. who do I need to kill to get back on a server? Is this Survival or Creative?

Pretty much what Steve has said. This was something a while ago that was in the news where everything you searched for can appear on things like Facebook adverts. Even what websites you visit can do the same thing - it's all about target audience. I think the examples being used was if you search for Holidays guess what appears in Facebook - Holiday Ads. On one side not a bad idea but on the other, this data logging/analysing is going very far.

I am currently testing two laptops, one slightly old okay spec and another a simple i3 spec. The i3 spec imaged perfectly fine, drivers, software and no real issues - except our Admin account refuses to load Edge "Due to it being a built in Admin" which we will sort out. Not a fan of 8 or 8.1, I hate not having the Start Menu or having to "Enable it" plus I hate the tablet screen and the way they have setup the main menu from the right etc. Still, W10 seems much more stable now and although I wont be pushing it out yet I am testing it to see if we can get perhaps PE on with SIMs Teacher App. I don't want them to suffer W8/8.1 but instead W10 seems generally better looking in my view - but don't get me started on Edge because I really don't like it.

We use email, it works and Staff seem very good using it - they cant say they don't know how!! HA! Plus it's added on to our LM so it groups in a folder, even if he doesn't read them he gets to see how many emails a day we get.

Seems to be the thing lately, we too recently hit the nail on the head - "NO".

No experience in iSAMS but I have a large experience with SIMs. It's been primarily used at every School I've worked at. From a Teaching perspective I am told it's great because of all the front end "looking" pieces. From the Technical perspective, It can be the worst nightmare or smooth sailing every 6 months. We've had consistent issues with outs: Recently tried to do the AUTUMN Upgrade and Solus 3 didn't want to deploy, turns out we was on the "Bad Version" of Solus even though it was the next recent version. I must have missed the Capita Notes on this... We've had random crashes of SIMs which required patches (All users must be out of SIMs and a backup taken). Consistently in almost 3 Years we have had only a single major upgrade process that ran smoothly. Others required Capita remote assistance on to the server or re-deploying updates to all the clients. SIMs/Solus is much better now in some ways, I am hoping we now have a smoother run but in all honesty I am not holding my breath. Not to mention the issues we had when we upgraded SQL, there were a lot of things we had to change that were not included in all the documentation and even that was limited.

Funny, I was thinking the same thing. Fingers crossed we won't have to put up with the X-Factor any more, it's ratings have dropped.

We use these, I have to say very good Netbooks. Powerful enough to be more than a 1 Year Netbook with heavy usage and small enough not to be a heavy lump to carry. You also get two models the 11e Yoga or 11e, Yoga turns in to a Tablet and can flip the screen back (very good at avoiding hinge damage) or the standard Netbook 11e version. Currently they all have Windows 8.1, was tempted to see what Windows 10 was like but didn't get the chance. Didn't even have the time to put Windows 7 on them. So far Windows 8.1 (once fully updated) seems okay.

For family and friends, I scratch their backs they scratch mine. I even have remote installed for a few of them in the event they need me to fix something. Swings and roundabouts. I considered offering support at a fee but on one side I don't want to be doing it all day every day and on the other side would there be enough business for me to offer it long term.

Ah yes the real world of Public Transport options which even for me is not the greatest idea. Taxi's are very expensive for me, about £35 a day. Trains are a nightmare because of the route, it's popular enough for trains every hour but not popular enough to make sure they are on time and working every day. And the remainder, buses which to get to work on time would require me to be 1 hour early or 1 hour or so late and likewise for Trains. What's interesting some time ago there was a discussion here about the fact people don't need cars any more and can completely rely on Public Transport. It's not the case when you have a choice of turning up 1 hour late or 1 hour earlier every morning.

Not a fan of his music but total respect to a man that was never afraid to be different and touched so many. Even as a Non Fan I know many of his songs, the lyrics, tunes and can understand why people loved his music.

Side effect of working in IT, especially in Education.

BUT BUT BUT According to a few posts that I have seen (even on EduGeek) that's an issue YOU need to resolve. What can YOU do to provide assistance to this issue. We need to be working together to resolve this legal matter and get the problem sorted so I get this DVD shown to my Students. I think I'm on a roll this week

Going to be working on one my self, already done a booklet for our Year 7s for the BYOD Scheme. Saving data (plus the warnings of NOT saving to drives that are backed up) How to treat a laptop (battery conditioning, security etc) How to add email on to SmartPhones/Tablets etc Connecting up to Wi-Fi/Logging on to Filtering System How to access Drives from home. Who to report certain problems to: E.g. Printer issues, day to day IT to us - SIMs usernames/passwords to Data Manager etc (plus all the others that are not IT Support). Print Limitations and who to forward big jobs to Scan to Email I could probably go on but at the moment I'm still only at the paper phase of creating a list.

BUT BUT BUT You should be going out of your way to say yes, at least according to some people anyway (luckily enough no one on this thread that I've seen). It is your duty to work out how to say yes!!!!! I don't care if its illegal, I want it done now. I don't care if I shouldn't be watching an 18 movie either, there is nothing wrong with aliens vs predators. The kids are used to gory movies with a ton of blood, at least there is no sex scenes. I want it now. This is an issue we need to work together to resolve, how do I get that movie copied, in my hands and in the pc ready to play for my Students - cmon that's an issue we need to resolve. Sorry I couldn't resist it, randomly popped in to my head.

Likewise! The amount of times I just want those extra five words.... What I hope doesn't happen is pages and pages showing up on my news feed, assume there will be the usual "show more" button on all tweets.

If I remember rightly there are several areas that need checking. I think on the SIMs server there is the DRIVE/SIMs/Connect.ini and there is also a system/Connect.ini on the server. Both of them need to be checked that they contain the correct details. We too have had an issue similar to you, now we 've removed that ini config appearing by making sure the above was correct. Plus all the settings in SOLUS3 are accurate, again I believe there is a few locations this info is stored. Sorry cant remember at the top of my head. Find a PC that is correct/working and compare?